The present invention relates to the cooking of eggs, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for cooking eggs in an automated process that retains the oval egg-shape during cooking.
Eggs have long been cooked or prepared individually by consumers using a wide variety of methods. Among these are methods of preparation and cooking which retain the oval shape of the egg, such as by boiling the egg in the shell. Another conventional method is the cooking of eggs in egg coddlers, which provide crucible-like cooking enclosures that may or may not be egg-shaped. An egg is cracked open and emptied into the coddler, and other ingredients may optionally be mixed with the egg in the coddler. The egg coddler is then placed in boiling water in order to cook the contents.
At least one apparatus for the automated cooking of an egg product has been developed. However, such apparatus does not produce an egg-shaped oval egg product but rather a cylindrical tube of cooked egg product. These egg-product cylinders are typically sliced for use by a commercial food service or restaurant, such as in salads or the like. These cylindrical egg products cannot be used in place of natural eggs however when the entire or a major portion of the egg is to be used whole by the consumer. These cylindrical egg products typically include an outer tube of egg white with an inner cylinder of egg yolk. The apparatus for processing such cylinders typically inject the egg white material and egg yolk material through a cylindrical cooking element or coaxial set of cooking elements during cooking, or alternatively mold the two sections separately during cooking and thereafter join the egg white and egg yolk together. During these processes preservatives may be added to the cylindrical or tubular egg product. Although the resulting cylindrical egg product does not itself resemble a natural egg, when sliced the resulting wafers of egg product do resemble a natural egg that has been sliced through the yolk.
Apparatus has also been developed for molding and cooking egg white in cup shapes which also may be used in salads, as deviled eggs or the like. These cup-shaped egg whites do not include a yolk and only provide a hemispherical portion of a normal egg shape.
It is believed that heretofore shelled eggs have not been commercially processed or cooked by automated means so as to retain their normal oval egg shape. Previously, in order to cook eggs so as to retain their normal oval egg shape, at least in large numbers, the eggs were boiled or otherwise cooked in their shell and thereafter the shell peeled from the cooked egg. Peeling a cooked egg is a much more difficult and time-consuming process than cracking open and emptying an egg while in its uncooked state. Further, due to the inability or difficulty in mixing preservatives with an egg white in its shell, the preservation and storage of such hard boiled eggs pose difficulties.
Another problem that has been experienced with the boiling of fresh eggs is that if the egg has not aged sufficiently the cooked egg white adheres to the inside of the shell. The egg is then very difficult to peel and normally results in excessive tearing of the egg white exterior, which is deleterious to the acceptability of the cooked egg. Further, when freshly laid eggs are cooked at boiling water temperatures, quite often the exterior of the eggs acquire a pock-marked appearance. Freshly-laid eggs are therefore either aged somewhat prior to cooking or are not normally cooked in such a manner as to retain their normal oval egg shape.
Still another problem experienced by the egg industry is the natural production of large numbers of medium or small eggs. Although smaller eggs are not defective from a food value standpoint, eggs which are smaller than the standard large grade are not as desirable to consumers and therefore command a lower price. Thus, large quantities of medium or small eggs are more difficult to market than large eggs.